Russian scientists are preparing to establish the production of human organs
Print in your image and likeness
In reality, everything is more prosaic. The 3D Bioprinting Solutions laboratory is one of the few in the world that is working on this technology, located in a rather old building in one of the outskirts of Moscow. The future gods occupy only a few rooms.
However, the gods are still far away. Now biopinting technologies have developed to the point that scientists are able to print cartilage tissue. For example, the ear. But this is not a functional, but a cosmetic organ. Such an artificial ear is not able to hear, there are no blood vessels in it, and so on. But it was already implanted in a real mouse, the "object" was tightened by the skin and took root.
Now there are about 20 bioprinters in the world. The device of the 3D Bioprinting Solutions company is still in the assembly process and should work closer to summer. But instead of one nozzle, which puts bio-ink on the bio-paper, he will have five at once. This means that Russian scientists will be able to print an organ consisting of five types of cells.
Prototype of a bioprinter. Photo: 3D Bioprinting Solutions press service
In theory, the technology looks like this. Stem cells are taken from a person who needs an organ transplant. There are a lot of them, for example, in adipose tissue. Just like a child who can become an athlete or a poet, a worker or an astronaut, a stem cell can turn into a basis for muscle or nerve tissue, become a bone or a blood vessel. Scientists have learned how to grow these cells and assemble them into spheroids – spherical conglomerates placed in a hydrogel. They are the biochernils.
Then everything, in principle, is like on a regular printer, only in 3D format. Biochernils are applied to the bio-paper layer by layer. Something like a "Napoleon" cake, only of a very intricate shape, familiar to us from textbooks on anatomy. And gradually a voluminous human organ is obtained. Rather, the so-called three-dimensional fabric construct. This preparation should still "ripen" and turn into a full-fledged liver, kidney or heart.
The printing principle resembles a layer cake. Photo: 3D Bioprinting Solutions press service
Since stem cells were taken from the patient himself, the problem of immune compatibility does not arise. The difficulty is different. The human kidney, for example, contains 20 types of cells. And this means you need a printer with 20 nozzles.
"The evolution of bioprinters follows the path of complication – an increase in the number of nosules, that is, sources from which these cells can be injected, dripped into the construct. The first printer was with one node, now there are three, we are doing with five. Adding each next complicates the work at times. That is, adding a sixth nozzle is not 20% more difficult, but an order of magnitude more difficult. Firstly, their placement is very limited - imagine what resolution such a printer should have. And it is much more difficult to manage this," says Sergey Novoselov, head of the 3D Bioprinting Solutions research laboratory.
Bioprinting is one of the most innovative and rapidly developing areas of research. Until recently, it was said that it would be possible to print a full-fledged organ only by 2030, now they are already calling 2020, and according to the boldest forecasts, 5-10 years remain before this event.
"While the main work is going on at universities, monsters and corporations have not yet joined the process. They have already come to conventional 3D printing. Hewlett-Packard bought a manufacturer of 3D printers. If some kind of monster comes to our area, of course, everything will go much faster," the biologist predicts.
The company "3D Bioprinting Solutions" exists on private investment. The main goal is to produce a kidney suitable for implantation.
"The kidney is a very complex organ,– Novoselov explains. "If we can make a kidney, we can make everything except the brain."
In addition, the kidney is one of the most popular for organ transplantation. About 100,000 transplants are performed in the world every year. About 25%-30% of those in need die without waiting for the operation. Every day, in the USA alone, 17 people die due to a shortage of donor organs. According to 2004 data, out of 87,000 Americans awaiting transplantation, 61,000 needed kidney transplants, 17,000 needed liver transplants, 4,000 needed lungs, 3,300 needed hearts, 1,600 needed pancreas transplants, and about 3,000 needed organ groups. The global kidney transplant market is currently estimated at about $25 billion.
According to the founders of the company, someday the production of organs will be put on stream. 3D bioprinting will revolutionize medicine, rid humanity of many diseases, aging. The out-of-order organs will simply be replaced, like spare parts for a car. That's just one, the most important, is unlikely to be replaced.
"In the brain, it is not just the number of cells and their correct location that is important," explains Sergey Novoselov. – It is important how these cells are connected to each other. There are billions of neural connections that are formed in the process of ontogenesis, that is, life. It is in them that our memory, experience, and our personality are contained. From my point of view, it is impossible to reproduce the brain."
Although there are already enthusiasts who predict that someday humanity will be able to solve this problem.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru04.02.2014